Methods for placing prepregs, i.e. fibre-reinforced pre-impregnated planar semi-finished products on a placement tool for the manufacture of a fibre mat are generally known as “automated fibre placement” (AFP) or “automated tape placement” (ATP) methods. Here semi-finished products, which have fibres that are pre-impregnated with a thermosetting or thermoplastic material, for example, carbon fibres that are oriented relative to one another, are laid down on a tool that is a close match to the final contour. The significant difference between the AFP and the ATP process consists in the fact that in the ATP process narrow material tapes, i.e. semi-finished product tapes, are laid down, whereas in the AFP process wide webs of material are used, with the result that the AFP method is particularly suitable for the reproduction of three-dimensional structures. The tool usually has a horizontal or a vertically oriented surface for purposes of holding the material to be laid down. In order to be able to position the material on the vertically oriented tool conventionally a fluid adhesion promoter is applied onto the tool surface. The adhesion promoter enables both a sufficient retention of the material, i.e. fibre mat, on the tool surface and also a simple release of the fibre mat from the surface. However, disadvantages relating to the adhesion promoter include both its labour-intensive application onto the tool surface, and also the time-intensive cleaning of the tool surface after the fibre mat has been released, with the result that the placement performance is markedly reduced. In principle it is also possible to position the material on the tool surface without a fluid adhesion promoter, but the fibre mat can then only be separated from the tool surface with great difficulty. Furthermore the adhesion promoter can be responsible for risks to health and environmental pollution, so that appropriate safety and environmental regulations must be observed.